 | Ulysses |  |
SCENE I
Forecourt of the palace of Ulysses at Ithaca, with stone seats disposed around it. Towards one side, the front of the palace, with portico and pediment richly decorated in the Mycenæan style. Separated from this, a building containing the women's apartments, from a gallery in which a flight of stairs leads down into the court. A boundary wall encloses both buildings: in the interval between them, the mountains of Ithaca are seen above the wall. To the right a low colonnade, over which appear the trees of the orchard— apples, pears, figs, etc., with a great vine trailing into the court. In the court, a scene of wild laughter, uproar, and prodigal confusion: some of the Suitors dancing in24
Antinous.
Come, Clytie, I have no breath
left, sit on my knee and drink from this cup!
No! I'll have fresh wine.
[Pours it on floor.]
A fresh jar.
Ctesippus.
Now may the Lady Penelope
defer her answer so long as she pleases. This
way of life suits me.
[A Handmaid empties cup
of wine over him.]
Fetch up fresh jars from
the cool earth!
Melantho.
[Entering from door in wall to left of house, and holding up key.]
I have
the keys of the great wine vault.
Peiræus.
Ah! you have stolen my keys!
How shall I meet Ulysses!
[Everyone laughs.
Mel.
Come with me, some of you, and bring
up fresh jars.
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Enter three Handmaids, loaded with flowers and branches of fruit—figs, apples, pears, grapes, pomegranates, followed by Pheidon.
Chloris.
See see! we have stripped the
great orchard. Here! here!
[They fling fruits and flowers over Suitors.
Pheidon.
Princes, princes! Years and
years have I tended these plants and trees,
and in a moment they are torn up, and all the
fruitage of the summer squandered. Ah! if my
master should return!
Ctes.
That need not trouble you.
[All laugh.
A wild scene of flinging fruits and red, white and purple flowers ensues.
Re-enter Melantho and Suitors, rolling fresh jars of wine.
Antin.
Break off the necks, and let the wine
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this wreath again! Ulysses is dead, or if he
live, we are masters here to-day.
[Jars are broken, wine flows on floor.
All.
Ha! ha! ha!
Enter Eurycleia, the old nurse, followed by two faithful Handmaids bearing workbaskets, etc.
Eurycl.
O, you vile handmaidens! that sit
on princes' knees and drink the wine of your
master who was ever kind to you.
Girls.
La! la! la! la! la!
Eurycl.
Oh! may you never come to a
husband's bed! but wither unwooed to the
grave!
Antin.
The old dame is envious! Here,
Ctesippus, you still lack a damsel. Take her
and comfort her! Kiss her, kiss her, Ctesippus!
Eurycl.
Wiser to let her be!
They drag Ctesippus to Eurycleia and push him towards her.
Ctes.
Her time is past—young lips for a man
of my spirit.
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Men reach not for withered apples!
Clyt.
Parchment face!
Mel.
You skin hung in the wind to dry!
All.
Ha! ha! ha!
Eurycl.
O! when Ulysses shall return—
All.
Ha! ha! ha!
Eurycl.
For return he shall—
All.
Ha! ha! ha! ha!
Eurycl.
O! then may he not spare you,
women though ye are, but strike you down with
the men—fools! wantons! thieves!
Mel.
[To faithful Handmaids.]
Why
slave under that bitter hag when you can
have the kisses and the gold of princes?
Antin.
What would he do—one man
amongst us all?
Eurycl.
Kill you! kill you! kill you!
Ulysses! Ulysses!
[She is hustled off.
Enter other Suitors dragging in Eumæus, the swineherd.
Suitor.
Here is the man who sends us the
lean swine.
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Bring him before me!
Eum.
Princes, I am but a serving-man and
have respect unto my lords. Shall I serve up
a dish that would poison the great princes?
Antin.
Poison us?
Ctes.
[Turning pale.]
What does he say?
Eum.
My lords, a fever is fallen upon the
swine! To eat them were death.
Ctes.
Ah! ah!
A Suitor.
What, what, Ctesippus!
Ctes.
Ah! the pain! the pain! I am
poisoned!
[All laugh.
Do I swell? do I swell already?
Suitors.
[With mock solemnity.]
Farewell,
farewell, Ctesippus, thy death is on thee!
Ctes.
Help me within doors! Ah! ah!
[Exit Ctesippus, supported by Handmaidens.]
Antin.
[To Eumæus.]
This is a lie!
Eum.
There are but two left of the whole
herd, and already I like not the countenance of
one of them!
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It is a lie to keep us from our food
Melanthius.
[Obsequiously.]
Believe him
not, most noble Antinous! But I, it is my
pleasure to bring you what I have; fat
kids; sweet morsels for my noble lords. He
hath hidden the swine away, most mighty
Antinous.
Antin.
Go, drag him out, and drive in the
swine.
Suitors.
Come, come: show us the swine!
Eum.
And so I will.
[Aside.]
But not the fat
ones.
[Exeunt Eumæus and Suitors.
Antin.
[To Servants within.]
A fresh
feast, and swiftly!
Meantime a brief sleep, for the sun bears
heavily on us. Come, Clytie, my head on
your lap.
A Suitor.
And you with me, Melantho.
[The Suitors lie down in various attitudes with the Handmaidens.
Re-enter Ctesippus, who starts in horror.
30
Ah! they are dead already.
Antin.
Cease, old fool, and sleep awhile.
[Ctesippus lies down.
Athene appears, and stands by Telemachus.
Athene.
What man art thou?
Telem.
O goddess bright!
Ath.
Be still;
Where is Ulysses' son?
Telem.
I am he.
Ath.
Thou he!
Where is Ulysses' son? Gone on a journey?
Or dead, that this is suffered in his halls?
Telem.
Nay, goddess; I am he!
[Buries his face in his hands.]
Ath.
Art thou his son?
Art thou the child of the swift and terrible one?
Could he who shattered Troy beget thee too?
What dost thou here, thy head upon thy hands,
While all the floor runs with thy father's wine,
And drunken day reels into lustful night?
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How scratch, how bite, how wound thee to find blood?
O, should Ulysses come again, how long,
How long should strangers glut themselves at ease?
Why, he would send a cry along the halls
That with the roaring all the walls would rock,
And the roof bleed, anticipating blood,
With a hurrying of many ghosts to hell
When he leapt amid them, when he flashed, when he cried,
When he flew on them, when he struck, when he stamped them dead!
Up! up! here is thy Troy, thy Helen here!
Telem.
Goddess, I am but one and they are many.
Ath.
Thou art innumerable as thy wrongs.
Hist! how they sleep already like the dead!
[Athene disappears.
Telem.
How would my father find me should he come!
32
And pondered on the doing! Now to do!
[He starts up.
[During the ensuing speech of Telemachus, the Suitors gradually awake and rise, some stretching themselves and yawning.
Antinous and Eurymachus, and the rest!
Too long have I borne to see you snatch and spoil,
And eat and swill, and gibe and ravish. Now,
Now from this moment I'll stand master here;
Lord of my own hall, ruler of this hearth.
I'll flit no more a phantom at your feasts,
Discouraged and discarded and disdained.
I am the son of him whom all men feared
And if he live I hold his place in trust;
If he be dead I stand up in his room.
Now on the instant, out! out at the doors!
[Antinous yawns loudly.
Ctes.
Are we awake, or do we all still dream?
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Take wing, you vultures that too long have perched!
Hence, hence, you rats that gnaw my father's grain.
Eurym.
I rub my eyes: is this Telemachus?
Telem.
I'll have no tarrying! Out, out ere ye wake!
The spirit of my sire descends on me,
And 'tis Ulysses that cries out on you;
You by the throat, Antinous, I take.
[He makes towards Antinous, who still holds Clytie in his arms, while she laughs impudently at Telemachus.
Antin.
Softly, sir, softly! Clytie, do not laugh,
This is your lord!
Ctes.
I like to see such mettle!
Eurym.
Be not too rough with him, Antinous!
Antin.
A moment, sir, before you cast us out—
[He laughs, as do the others till he recovers himself.
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Doubtless you could!
A Suitor.
We are helpless and o'ermatched!
Eurym.
Sad Ithaca, when such a tyrant rules!
Ctes.
Reach down thy father's bow and shoot us dead!
Telem.
[To himself, while Eurymachus and other Suitors at back are consulting in whispers how to deal with him.]
Fool, fool! I have but made myself a jest:
It was not thus Athene meant. Fool, fool!
Eurym.
[Coming forward to Telemachus from others at back.]
One word! You say that we devour your halls,
That we are vultures, rats. Yet answer this,
Do we bide here, then, of our own inclining?
We come to woo your mother—are your guests,
And we would have an answer ere we go!
All.
An answer, yes!
Antin.
[Starting up.]
An answer from her lips,
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Have we not seen moon kindle after moon
And still she puts us by! How long, how long!
Telem.
Eurymachus, I have blustered windy threats;
But 'tis a grievous office thus to sit
A master and no master in my halls,
And still I say you do me injury,
Devouring thus the substance of my sire!
Antin.
Then let your mother make her choice of us!
Would she have strength and splendour of the limbs,
Sap of the body and youth's burning blood,
I little doubt on whom her choice will fall.
Eurym.
Nor I—would she have prudence in her lord
And craft.
Ctes.
And I say nothing, but I know
A woman before prudence chooseth gold.
Antin.
[Striking table.]
And till she answer, none, not Zeus himself
Nor all the gods shall turn me out of door.
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Come, drink, Telemachus; we wish thee well.
'Tis difficult for thee: I'd be thy friend.
Come, lad!
[Putting his arm about Telemachus.]
Telem.
I'll not drink with you. What to do?
Eurym.
Now that this little tempest is o'erblown,
Sing to us, minstrel, and chase wrath away.
Come and sit near to me, Telemachus.
Ctes.
[In lachrymose manner.]
Sing, minstrel, sing us now a tender song
Of meeting and parting, with the moon in it;
I feel that I could love as I loved once.
[Sighs deeply. All laugh.
Minstrel.
O set the sails, for Troy, for Troy is fallen,
And Helen cometh home;
O set the sails, and all the Phrygian winds
Breathe us across the foam!
O set the sails unto the golden West!
It is o'er, the bitter strife.
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And the husband to the wife!
[During this song Penelope has softly descended, accompanied by two Handmaids, and stands listening unnoticed. She holds her veil before her face.
And she shall fall upon his heart
With never a spoken word—
Pen.
[Dropping veil.]
Cease, minstrel, cease, and sing some other song;
Thy music floated up into my room,
And the sweet words of it have hurt my heart.
Others return, the other husbands, but
Never for me that sail on the sea-line,
Never a sound of oars beneath the moon,
Nor sudden step beside me at midnight:
Never Ulysses! Either he is drowned
Or his bones lie on the mainland in the rain.
[The Suitors gather around her admiringly and importunately.
Antin.
Lady, he sang to chase away our wrath.
38
That we stay here too long, and cries, ‘Out! out!’
But we await your answer, still deferred:
Deferred from day to day, from month to month.
I, I at least no longer will be fooled,
Whose pent and flooding passion foams at bars.
Choose one of us, and they—the rest—will go!
Pen.
Ah! sirs, remember that I but delay
To choose till I have woven at the loom
A shroud for old Laertes.
Melan.
O my mistress!
How canst thou stand and lie to noble men?
O princes, I have spied on her, and she
At night unravels what she wrought by day.
Ye'll wait a long time if for this ye wait.
Pen.
Melantho! I was ever kind to you.
Antin.
We are tricked then!
All.
We are duped!
Eurym.
O she is subtle!
Pen.
Princes, you drive me like a hunted thing
To feint and double thus.
39
A game they play!
The mother fools us and the son reviles us.
She thinks us asses, and he calls us rats.
Am I then like a vulture or a rat?
Telem.
Mother, 'tis true I did upbraid them all;
I am called master here, but am no master;
Lord, but I rule not! smiled at and passed by,
A shadow while these men usurp my halls.
Eurym.
[Going to Telemachus, and laying hand on his shoulder.]
Lady, indeed your son hath much excuse,
And for his sake I'd urge you to make answer,
For his sake and the sake of this dear land,
Which lies now with defenceless coast, a rabble
Leaderless, laws and altars overturned.
Let then your son rise in his father's room.
Ctes.
Let the boy take the reins and drive: but thou
Depart with one of us; and better sure
A live Ctesippus than a dead Ulysses.
Eurym.
[Pointing to Telemachus.]
Thy duty points thee to thy son that lives!
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Is it so, child, this brooding on a dream
Hath kept thee from thy kingdom? I am wrapt
So in my husband I forget my son.
Telem.
Mother, although my office here is hard,
Yet would I rather lie out by the door,
Cursed, spat on, offal thrown to me for food,
Than any grief of mine should hasten you
To answer with your lips but not your heart,
Or be the cause of your departing hence.
Pen.
And yet I see 'tis so, and that dear ghost
Excludes the living child: forgive me, son.
[To the Suitors.]
Yet, sirs, I cannot on the instant choose:
I lose your faces in the thought of him.
Not on the instant—give me a brief space!
Then will I choose as husband one of you.
Ctes.
Though she looked straight before her didst thou see
How her eye wandered toward me?
Eurym.
She looked not
On me: that argues in a woman love.
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See, the young moon hath not begun to quicken,
And on the evening hangs awaiting life.
We'll give thee time till yonder moon is full:
Then shalt thou choose from us. Till then! No more.
Pen.
I will do so.
Telem.
Mother, think not that I—
Pen.
My child, I have no blame for you at all.
Eurym.
[To Suitors.]
Thy answer, then, when that faint moon is full!
Antin.
I challenge any here to hurl the quoit: To the market-place.
Eurym.
Haste, then, ere it grow dark.
[Telemachus again comes forward to Penelope.
Pen.
Go with them, child! Nay, thou hast done no wrong.
[Exeunt all but Penelope, who stands stretching out her arms in the darkening twilight.
Where art thou, husband? Dost thou lie even now
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Or dost thou live, and art with magic held
By some strange woman on a lone sea isle?
Yet we are bound more close than by a charm;
By fireside plans and counsel in the dawn—
Like gardeners have we watched a growing child.
Thy son is tall, thou wilt be glad of him;
All is in order; by the fire thy chair,
Thy bed is smoothed, but now these hands have left it.
Thou knowest the long years I have not quailed,
True to a vision, steadfast to a dream,
Indissolubly married to remembrance;
But now I am so driven I faint at last!
Why must my beauty madden all these wolves?
Why have the gods thus guarded my first bloom?
Why am I fresh, why young, if not for thee?
Come! come, Ulysses! Burn back through the world!
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And rush upon this bosom with a cry,
Ere 'tis too late, at the last, last instant—come!
[Again the Minstrel's song is heard as the scene changes.
| Ulysses | |